


Choices

by sanctuary_for_all



Category: Suicide Squad (2016)
Genre: And If Not Wouldn't The Characters Appreciate It That Much More?, F/M, Fluff, Is It Legal To Write Fluff For This Universe?, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:08:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8183030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: Now that the Enchantress is gone, June has some choices to make. ***Spoilers for Suicide Squad***





	

**Author's Note:**

> I see this as being set in between the big battle and the scene where Rick is overseeing Floyd's visit with his daughter. I should probably apologize.

June laid her head against Rick’s chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat. Some nights, the steady rhythm of it had been the only thing that let her get any sleep at all. He’d been the only reason she hadn’t given up a thousand different times between the moment he’d found her in that bathtub and when she’d thrown her arms around him in that destroyed building in Midway.

Now, he pet her hair as if he would be content to do it for years. “Now that Enchantress is gone, Waller’s got nothing on you,” he said quietly, the words rough with emotion. “You can do what you want, go where you want. You’re free as a bird.”

 _Free._ The idea of it was like a shot of pure adrenaline, singing through her and making it impossible to sleep.  For the first time since she’d stepped into that damned cave, she was truly free. “Well, I’m definitely not going back out in the field again—“

His hold on her tightened. “You’d better not.”

June smiled. “But I could teach, maybe. I have enough credentials to squeeze out an associate professorship at a community college somewhere, but I could even teach high school history if I had to.” She traced her fingers lightly along the line of his arm, letting herself picture it. “Someplace quiet, where the scariest thing I would have to worry about is grading homework.”

“Sounds great.” Rick’s voice was soft, even rougher now. “Maybe if I had someone like you as a teacher, I might not have given up on school quite so easy.”

Her smile widened. “Well, if I have any students who remind me of you, odds are they’ll end up becoming my favorites.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” She could hear the humor in his voice, but it was still threaded through with too much of something heavier. “I was a little shit when I was younger.”

June pushed herself up on one arm so she could look down at his face, seeing the tightness around his eyes. “You’re staying, aren’t you?” she asked quietly, gently caressing his face as if she could ease his worry by touch alone. “With Waller.”

“If I don’t, there won’t be anyone standing between her and the team.” His tone sounded like he was asking for forgiveness. “A new handler won’t give any more of a shit about them than I did at first. And I _owe_ them, June.” His voice cracked as he lifted a hand to her face. “I couldn’t have saved you without them.”

She owed them, too. They’d kept Rick alive when she’d struggled to even hold on to her existence. “You have such a good heart,” she whispered, closing the distance between them for a soft, sweet kiss. “I don’t know why you can’t see that.”

“I don’t know how you can.” His eyes were wet. “No one else is able to.”

“Well, they just aren’t looking hard enough.” She smoothed his hair back, accepting that Waller was still going to be a shadow in their lives. But such a smaller shadow than she had been. “Where do you think she’ll station you?”

He shrugged, unconcerned. “Hotel rooms, probably. She likes having me at her beck and call.”

June’s brow lowered. “It’ll be harder for me to get a teaching job if we don’t have a permanent home.” She didn’t know how the high school system worked, but  she could research it. “Or at least semi-permanent. Could you get permission to live on a....” Her voice trailed off as she realized he’d gone still underneath her, so much so he didn’t even seem to be breathing. “Rick?”

He was staring up at her wide-eyed, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “You’re staying?” he breathed.

She went cold. “I thought that was the plan,” she whispered, feeling like the ground had been ripped out from underneath her. Was he... she’d thought he’d felt.....

His own expression went urgent at whatever he saw in her face, pulling her down against him and wrapping his arm around her. “It is, baby, it is,” he murmured against her hair, the words thick with emotion. “If I get a say in the matter, you’re stuck with me for the rest of your life. But you didn’t have much of a choice before, and now you do.”

“And you assumed I wouldn’t choose you.” June pushed herself up again so she could look him in the eyes, which were as raw and vulnerable as they only ever seemed to be with her. Her chest ached, and any frustration she’d felt died in a rush of tenderness. “Rick, you saved my life.”

His brow lowered. “Don’t feel like you owe me for that. It was my fault Enchantress was able to run off in the first place.”

“I don’t mean in Midway.” She pressed a soft kiss against his cheek. What he’d told her about his childhood made it clear he’d had little in the way of tender touches, and she looked forward to filling his life with them. “Before you found me, the only reason I wasn’t dead was because the Enchantress wouldn’t let me kill myself. After she escaped this last time, though, she wanted me gone – she was powerful enough to take over the body completely, and if she could have burned me out she would have had one less distraction to deal with. But I wouldn’t let her.” She smiled a little, her eyes wet. “I knew you’d be mad if I wasn’t there when you came to get me.”

He pulled her down for another kiss, full of all the intensity of emotion neither of them had dared find words for yet. She let herself fall into it, the release of his arms even sweeter now that she knew it was more than a temporary reprieve. It was a future, a sweeter one than she’d let herself believe in for a long time.

When they broke apart, he looked wrecked in the best possible way. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you so much.”

The words caused the same soaring feeling in her chest that the idea of freedom did. “I love you, too.” She settled back into the circle of his arms, tucking her cheek against the crook of his neck. “So don’t be stupid. I’m not going anywhere.”

He huffed out a shaky laugh, leaning his own cheek against her hair. “Yes, ma’am.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my weekly posts and original short fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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